this is how food is used in foreign policy

In 1992, George HW Bush, the president of the United States at the time, also visited Japan during his Asian tour. One of his official programs was a state dinner where raw salmon, caviar and grilled beef with pepper sauce were served. It is not possible to know for sure whether it was due to the food or some illness (according to the official announcement, it was gastroenteritis), but Bush made history by becoming the first American president to vomit into the Japanese prime minister. Kiichi Miyazawa into his lap.

A somewhat less unpleasant but still terribly embarrassing incident happened to Barack Obama when he hosted his French counterpart, François Hollande, at a state dinner. Caviar was also on the menu at the White House – which, of course, is not surprising at such a high-level diplomatic meeting – while the socialist government of the French president was awkwardly trying to ensure that it did not arouse resentment in its political opponents, who call them the caviar left, and in the opposition voters.

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saw food as the oldest diplomatic tool in international relations. This is certainly also true for Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who, however, approached the issue from a slightly different perspective: in 1979, at the European Council meeting, French President Giscard d’Estaing really wanted to eat, but the Iron Lady refused suspend the trial until a final decision is reached. Unsurprisingly, d’Estaing then suddenly became much more cooperative.

The way to people’s hearts is through their stomachs

And foreign affairs representatives and politicians are well aware of this. There is so much truth to this saying that a whole branch of diplomacy has developed for culinary delights.so that individual countries can strengthen their international relations by satisfying one of the most basic needs of people, and increase their gastronomy and food products interest in economic, touristic and commercial upswing.

Although the term gastrodiplomacy was first coined Economist magazine used in 2002, the practice is not new at all. Even Winston Churchill knew well that (sorry in advance) a rumbling stomach has no ears, and he liked to organize his most important meetings around the dining table. Richard Nixon is also soft diplomacy was a believer. When he had dinner with Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai in 1972, he achieved a significant milestone in the development of Sino-American relations with a single small gesture, which was considered rare in Western countries at the time: he ate the dinner with chopsticks.

Of course, as in most relationships, it is easy to run into obstacles in the field of culinary diplomacy if only one party is willing to put in the effort. When II. Erzsébet visited Belize in 1985, and her hosts prepared a menu for her that included fried gibnut – a nocturnal rodent that is considered a delicacy by the locals. However, while the Queen praised the chef, the British tabloids reported on the event by saying that the monarch was served a rat. This greatly outraged Belizeans, who gained independence from Great Britain in 1981, who accused the journalists of racism and insensitivity, and the gibnut suddenly acquired a stronger symbolic meaning and a higher status in the Central American country.

And Donald Trump made himself uncomfortable in Asia by not being able to swallow his dislike of vegetables when he visited India in February 2020, which is mainly inhabited by Hindus who revere cows as sacred animals. His foreign hosts usually have his favorite menu, steak and ketchup they tried to impress the former American president, but his Indian colleague, who is known to be a vegetarian, still did everything to please him. At Naredra Modi’s residence, the palace chefs prepared the menu especially for Trump. The fish tikka was served with Cajun spices instead of garam masala, and the beef he loved so much was replaced with goat – but the first man of the USA did not really appreciate the efforts. During her visit to Ahmedabad, however, neither she nor the first lady tried the special vegetarian menu, when the famous chef Suresh Khanna filled the samosas with broccoli and corn instead of the traditional potatoes and peas.

It’s so easy for someone to trick you

The Obama administration and the Iranian government spent 20 months trying to conclude the nuclear agreement in 2015, which has since been canceled by Donald Trump. The tension was palpable, and not by the way, the parties ate separately at each meeting. But on July 4, American Independence Day, the Iranians invited representatives of the United States to their table, and the two sides are said to have already began to treat him as a partner the other one. An agreement was reached within 10 days, and experts from both countries were convinced that it was made possible by a joint meal.

The growing number of gastrodiplomacy initiatives suggests that it is becoming more and more obvious to world leaders that the way to the hearts of their foreign partners is through their stomachs. The appearance of culinary diplomacy is a direct consequence of globalization, and it tries to attract not only politicians, but also internet users and traveling gourmets, who are happy to travel to a country to try out the culinary arts and buy local delicacies.

For example, in Denmark, new-wave cuisine has secured an honored place on the world’s gastronomic map for the best chefs of the Scandinavian country by making ingredients and practices that have almost been lost in obscurity once again fall in love with world-traveling gourmets. And Peru created its own gastronomic brand, Marca Perú, with support from the public and private sectors. So there is life beyond the mainstream Chinese buffets, pizzerias, tacos and kebab shops, and it is worth trying the lesser-known dishes of other countries, as this way we can not only enrich ourselves with memorable culinary experiences, but also get to know each nation from a new side.